Major Photography Show Coming to Raleigh

Folks in Atlanta, Washington, Miami, and Dallas get major photography shows all the time, but we folks who live in North Carolina are excited about an upcoming show at Raleigh's Flanders Gallery of work by a large number -- and wide range -- of contemporary photographers, including North Carolina photographers Burk Uzzle, Taj Forer, and Pamela Pecchio, a sample of whose work is pictured above.

This show, curated by major Wilson, NC, photography collector Allen Thomas, opens with a reception on Raleigh's November First Friday, November 5th, 2010, from 6-9 pm, and will be up at 302 South West Street, in Raleigh,  from November 5th through the end of 2010. Other photographers slated to have work in this show include Keliy Anderson-Staley, Tim Briner, Jesse Burke, Katrina D’Autremont, Ian F.G. Dunn, Nils Ericson, Dan Estabrook, Jody Fausett, Anthony Goicolea, Allison Hunter, Michael Itkoff, Bill Jacobson, Sarah Anne Johnson, Carrie Levy, Chris McCaw, Kristine Potter,   Francesca Romeo, Kerry Skarbakka, Tema Stauffer, Bill Sullivan, Tim Tate, Brian Ulrich, Stacy-Lynn Waddell,  Shen Wei, and Cosmo Whyte.

This ought to be a fine show, since Allen has excellent tastes in contemporary photography (he curated a major show of work at the NC Museum of Art a few years ago, drawn from his own collection). Hope lots of you can join us for this show.

The Festival Season, Round Two

While Atlanta Celebrates Photography is going full tilt the entire month of October, PHOTOTexas XVI is also up and running from October 13th through October 24th, with events scheduled in San Antonio, Austin, and Johnson City. highlights include the opening of the Captivar La Luz: A Latino Experience show in San Antonio on the 13th of October and of TPS 19: The International Competition show, sponsored by the Texas Photographic Society, on October 23rd at A Smith Gallery in Johnson City.

Other Southern photography festivals are preparing for their time in the Southern sun. Early November brings FotoWeek DC (November 6-13, 2010) and December offers PhotoNOLA  (December 2-11, 2010).

Already we can see winners of various contests associated with FotoWeek DC here, including the work of Raleigh photographer Jimmy Williams, an example of whose work is pictured above.

Atlanta Celebrates Photography Now Wide Open

Atlanta's annual month for celebrating photography is now in full swing. There are over 150 lectures, film showings, and exhibits of local, regional, national, and international work. The opening reception is tonight, September 30th, at the Hagedorn Foundation Gallery from 5-8 pm. .

The online Guide to ACP 2010 is here. Go here and here for even more information.So much to see, so little time!

SlowExposures featured in The New Yorker

SlowExposures is featured in this week's New Yorker online photography blog Photo Booth.

The New Yorker's Elizabeth Biondi traveled to Pike County, Georgia for the opening weekend and had a wonderful time. She came back with good words for everyone, and includes images from the show, and from John Bennette's Southern Memories show, on the blog. She enjoyed "the Southern conviviality and hospitality [that] create an ambiance that is most of all creative and communicative."

Elizabeth says she "learned to pronounce the word “kudzu” properly, ate a lot of Southern food, met many talented photographers, saw tons of very good work, and fell in love with a number of photographs, especially Jessica Hines’s quirky boat picture."

"Most important," Elizabeth says, "the photographs helped me understand Southern ways a little better than I did before."

You go, girl.

David Simonton in Southern Memories Show

Photographs by Raleigh, NC photographer David Simonton are featured in the special exhibition Southern Memories, organized by John Bennette at this year's SlowExposures photography festival in Pike County, Georgia.You can read John's comments about David's work if you go to the SlowExposures blog, here.

Simonton, a native of New York who grew up in New Jersey and moved to North Carolina in 1989, quickly turned his artistic gaze on his adopted home.  Noticing that North Carolina is primarily a state of small towns, he has documented over 350 of its towns and rural communities. 

Bennette says Simonton shows us "the small southern towns we hear about and dread." But I don't think that's right. I think David shows us the small Southern towns we live in, in a South that is perpetually in transition. 

Simonton pays particular attention to the Southern townscape in moments of this transition, from day to night, from rural to urban, from old to new. He helps us redefine Faulkner's old remark that in the South the past isn't dead; it isn't even past. In Simonton's images of the South, the past is present but in the moment of its passing, so we see not only what remains but the condition of how it remains with us. 

Simonton is widely recognized for his photography. His portfolio is among the work of a small group of North Carolina photographers in the permanent collection of the NC Museum of Art, along with John Menapace, Elizabeth Matheson, Caroline Vaughan, and others.

Simonton has also taught photography at NC State University and Peace College, both in Raleigh.

Among his many awards is the Juror's Award in the 12th Annual Center Awards Exhibition, sponsored by the Center for Photographic Art in Carmel, California, for his "originality of expression, strong guiding idea, skillful use of the chosen photographic materials, personal integrity, and relevance to our own times." He has also twice been named recipient of the Visual Artist Fellowships from the North Carolina Arts Council (2000, 2008).

Simonton is well-included in John Bennette's show. He is definitely a Southern Photographer We Admire.